Joseph Prince - The Benefits of Being Washed by the Word
This is an excerpt from: Unveiling Jesus' Heart To Serve You
And I look at the word "wipe". I'm bringing this to a close. "Wipe," you think about the word "wipe". The Lord had me check this word and I was blessed because the word "wipe" is "ekmasso". Ekmasso. Now, what is "ekmasso"? "Ekmasso," you see, it's made out of two words, "ek" and "masso" in the Greek. "Ekmasso". "Ek" means "out of, away from". What's "masso"? "Masso" is the word "devour". It's the word "eat" or "devour". "Ek" means what? "Ek" means what? Away from, delivered from, out of being devoured. So He washes your feet, then He wipes it. Now He wash your feet, it's no more dusty. No more food for the devil, amen. And He uses the righteousness of the saints, right? He dry your feet with what? A righteousness consciousness. At the end of the washing, it's always a righteousness consciousness. You have a fresh sense that you are clean. You have a fresh sense that when He looks at you that He's not finding fault with you. Are you listening, people?
So one of the things you can do, all right, then Jesus went down, okay, I'm gonna show you what you can do. Drop down. He says, "You shall..." Then Peter said, after He says, "What I'm doing you do not know now," Peter says, "You shall never wash my feet"! "If I don't wash you, you have no part with Me". Okay, not, "No part in Me," that's salvation, but Peter is saved, all right? They are all saved. "No part with Me". In other words, "You cannot walk with Me". You're still a believer, but there's no co-laboring, no walking together, no communion. "If I... learn to receive My love every day, receive My Word," amen. Are you listening, people?
Again, I repeat to you, the word that cleanses in John 15, same upper room experience. They are still in the upper room when Jesus says later on, "I am the vine, you are the branches," then He says, "Now you are clean". It's not a word of rebuke. It is not a word of a new law. It's not, okay? Now, there is a new commandment He gives in this upper room. You know, we focus so much on the Ten Commandments, right, we forget that, we also focus a lot on the Sermon on the Mount. How many of you have heard Sermon on the Mount? All right, okay, a few of you. Very sad. Okay, one more time. How many of heard of Sermon on the Mount since you were a Christian? Okay, how many of you heard of Sermon in the Upper Room. Fewer. That's true for every Christian. They are more familiar with Sermon on the Mount than the Sermon on Mount Zion, 'cause the upper room is probably the highest point of Mount Zion.
They know this, but the sermon that Jesus preached in the Sermon of the Mount is actually the laws, the constitution of the kingdom that He came to bring, and that's another teaching altogether, all right? It is still not the dispensation of grace just yet or the church age yet. He came to bring the kingdom of God to Israel, all right? That is now in abeyance, and now the kingdom of God becomes spiritual. But had they received Jesus then, the kingdom of God would have come to earth in Israel, all right? So that was the constitution of the kingdom. We should be more familiar with instructions for the church in the Sermon in the Upper Room, the Sermon on Mount Zion. Come on, come on, come on. The Sermon on Mount Zion, there you have a new commandment. "Love one another as I have loved you". The key is there, "As I have loved you". I'm to receive His love. I cannot love unless I have been loved. We love because He first loved us. Can I have a good amen?
In the upper room, He taught a new kind of prayer, "Pray in My name. Up 'til now you have asked nothing in My name," which means that includes the Lord's Prayer even, all right, under the kingdom. We still can pray that prayer. It's still valid for today, yes, all right, but He included that prayer because that prayer did not end with His name. He said, "Up 'til now you have not prayed in My name, including all the prayers that you have prayed". But up 'til now in the upper room, the prayer for the church is this, "Ask anything in My name and your joy will be full, and I'll give it to you". The Father will give it to you. Are you listening?
It's a lot of instruction. The Holy Spirit was given, and instruction about the Holy Spirit and what He'll do all in the upper room. That's the message we are to spend more time in, and also the washing of the feet, the spiritual meaning. In other words, all that I'm teaching you is part of the Sermon in the Upper Room. When He goes back, He's telling you today what Jesus is doing at the Father's right hand, okay? I'm gonna give you something that I think is gonna bless you because he went up, "Simon Peter says", Jesus said, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with Me". Simon Peter said, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head"! Obviously he had bad imaginations, dirty thoughts, whatever, and his hands do bad things and all that, so he says, "I'm all dirty, my head". Sometimes Christians feel that way. Sometimes we feel that our head is still dirty and all that.
Listen to what Jesus said. Some people feel that they need to be born again. The next word Jesus says is this. "Jesus said to him, 'He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.'" Now, forget the last part, okay, because the last part here refers to, "For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, 'You are not all clean,'" okay? So He refers to Judas, so take that one out. Let's see the lesson here, all right, stand alone. Verse 10, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet". Now, the word "bathed" is "louo". In the Greek, that's bathe. He needs only to wash his feet. "Wash his feet" is a different Greek word, "nipto". Nipto is when in the morning you wash your face, you nipto your face. You wash your feet, it's a part of your body. It's not a bath. A bath is louo. Say, "Louo". Louo. Say, "Nipto".
"Eh, it's all Greek to me, Pastor Prince". That's why I'm teaching you. Louo. "He who is bathed needs only to nipto his feet, but is completely clean". Now, "He who is bathed" is the first washing, and this same word is used in the washing of the regeneration that Paul used. Paul talked about the washing of regeneration. The word "washing" there is "louo". We are all born again, we are all bathed once and for all. That bathe cannot be repeated. I said the bathe cannot be repeated. Once you are saved, you are saved. What if I fall? What if I stumble? Then He just gave you the answer. You only have to wash your feet. And this bath in Revelation chapter 1, it says, "Unto Him". Listen carefully, all right? I didn't put it up here. Listen carefully.
Revelation chapter 1, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood". The word "wash" there is "louo," bathe us. Young's Translation says, "And bathed us from our sins in His own blood". That is salvation. Have you been bathed in the blood of Jesus? You are saved. You are born again, hallelujah. All your sins, God remembers no more. And God sees you without imputation of sin. You're not perfect. You are lining up. There's progressive sanctification going on, but you need to be established in this in order for you to really have that progressive sanctification. Now, I said a lot. For those of you who have ears to hear, receive that, but here it says you need to know this. Once you are born again, once you've been washed by the blood, you don't need to keep on rewashing, rewashing, rewashing, rewashing every day. You only need the Word, even when your feet get sore. That means what? Your walk, you fall, you stumble. The devil traps you. You need to go back.
See, a lot of people just, "Oh God, I confess my sins. Oh God," and keep on doing the same thing because they're not using the resource that Jesus told us to use. Come to Him. Just say, "Lord, I've been stumbling a lot, Lord. My feet is very dirty. I put my feet in Your loving hands". And it's very hard for me. I feel like Peter. No, You cannot wash my feet. Lord, How can You wash my feet? Sometimes we are all Chinese, many of us, very Chinese in our, "No, cannot, lah. No, no, no, lah". Like, "Want a piece of cake"? No, lah. No, lah. No, lah. You eat, lah. You eat. Then really, the other guy eat, right, you get angry. Whoa, you didn't persevere, did you? Usually that guy is from another country usually. You don't understand our custom. We are supposed to say, "You want a piece of cake?" we must say, "No, lah, no". You cannot say, "Thank you". We must say, "No, lah. No, lah". Then they will say, "No, really". Then you still must say, "No, lah. No, lah".
Third time, third time is the cue. Say it the third time. If you are from America or whatever, learn this, all right? The third time is the killer. He will go for it. Say, "No, really, really, do you want this cake". "Aye, yeah. Never mind, lah. Very kind," you know? that's a Singapore custom, okay? You gotta learn that. But some people, they do not know. They thought that you have personal reason or whatever. They come from another place, right, they don't know our culture. You say that they ask you, "Would you like a piece of cake"? "No, lah". "Okay," right? That's why you need to receive from Jesus every day. These things happen, you know? Before you know it, on the road you didn't plan to get angry, but you get angry.